Refer A Friend
Last updated
Last updated
The Refer A Friend (RAF) Feature provides members with a unique URL to share with their friends, to get them to register and signup for a campaign on DoSomething.org.
We commonly use these terms (in the business, and in code) when describing this feature:
Alpha - The user who is sharing the URL with friends, prompting the friends to register
Beta - The friends that the alpha is sharing the URL with
Users will see a Referral Page Banner after signing up for any campaign configured for this feature, which refers them to their Alpha Referral Page.
When the 'referral incentive' feature flag is enabled (DS_ENABLE_REFER_FRIENDS_INCENTIVE ENV variable is set to true), incentive-specific RAF copy is displayed across all referral pages, alluding to a $10 gift card reward for the Alpha & Beta. Otherwise incentive-less RAF copy is displayed.
To opt a campaign into the referral feature, its displayReferralPage field should be set to true.
After signing up for the campaign, users will see a Referral Page Banner within the signup Affirmation, which links to their Alpha Referral Page.
If the 'referral incentive' feature flag is enabled, and the user is a beta referral (they have a referrer_user_id query parameter in the URL), we display targeted copy in the banner instead of the CTA.
The user's Alpha Referral Page prompts the user to share their Beta Referral Page with their friends. The Beta Referral Page URL will contain the user's ID as a user_id query parameter as well as the campaign_id containing the referral campaign.
If the campaign_id query parameter is missing completely, the campaign will default to the assigned DEFAULT_REFERRAL_CAMPAIGN_ID variable for the application. (If this variable is not assigned, the campaign link will display an error).
Users can visit their account RAF tab for a similar experience to the canonical Alpha Referral Page.
The campaign_id query parameter for their share URL will be the assigned DEFAULT_REFERRAL_CAMPAIGN_ID. This can also be overwritten via a campaign_id query parameter: dosomething/us/account/refer-friends?campaign_id={ID}
The page will also display a gallery of the user's beta referrals, or more specifically: a unique list of users who have signed up for a campaign with the users referral link (i.e. their signup contains a referrer_user_id with the user's Northstar ID).
The Beta Referral Page links to the campaign that the beta should join (set via the campaign_id query parameter), in order to receive the reward along with the alpha (which is set via the user_id query parameter).
We also display a secondary campaign link using the configured DEFAULT_REFERRAL_CAMPAIGN_ID.
If the campaign_id query parameter matched this assigned default, we'll only display the primary link. If the campaign_id query parameter is missing completely, we'll similarly pull the default ID and display it as the primary link.
The campaign URLs that the Beta Page links to will include the alpha's user ID as a referrer_user_id query parameter:
This referrer_user_id query parameter will be added to the referrer_user_id of any new user accounts created by betas, as well as appended to the campaign signup or reportback submitted when the query parameter is attached.
The first iteration of Refer A Friend (RAF) offered a $5 gift card reward to any beta who registered and signed up for a staff pick campaign, as well as the alpha that referred them. The Referral Page Banner would only display for users with the refer-friends feature set.
The list of campaigns to display the Referral Page Banner for was hardcoded into the codebase. The Beta Referral Page URL would include a campaign_id query parameter, e.g.:
If this campaign ID matched a hardcoded referral page campaign, we'd link to this campaign in the first block on the Beta Referral Page.
In anticipation of launching a fully formalized version of RAF, we deprecated the refer-friends-scholarship feature flag, and exposed the RAF CTA Banner to all users signing up for a campaign opted into RAF in the Referral Page Banner.
And now, having actually soft-launched the RAF V2 iteration, we've deprecated the scholarship reward completely, and offer the RAF functionality with both gift card incentive and incentive-less copy options.
The second iteration of RAF allowed the list of campaigns (as well as the default campaign) to be configured via environment variable feature flags. This was deprecated in by the addition of the displayReferralPage field. The Referral Page Banner in the campaign signup affirmation was still only exposed to new users who were assigned the refer-friends-scholarship feature flag.
